348 Field Museum of Natural History — Anth., Vol. X. 



forward of the body. It is curious that the hands are not outlined, 

 but disappear under the robe, as if to avoid the chilly mist of the clouds. 



The story of this image is reported as follows: "In the period 

 Hi-ning (1068-1078 a. d.) of the Sung dynasty, the Empress-Dowager 

 Hiian-jeri was an adherent of Buddha and commanded Kao K'an with 

 the office of nei-shih tu-chih to take along and offer imperial incense, 

 and to represent the Court on the island of P'u-t'o l in the worship of 

 the Great Master Samantabhadra and the Bodhisatva Avalokitecvara. 

 In the cave Ch'ao-yin ("The Sound. of the Tide") he proclaimed the 

 imperial will, when suddenly the voice of thunder sounded in this cave, 

 accompanied by a torrent of water which brought this image to light. 

 Kao K'an hurriedly received the image and reported to the throne. 

 The Empress Dowager received it respectfully in the palace in order to 

 establish a regular cult for this image, for it was a heavenly most precious 

 gift." 



The Ch'ao-yin cave mentioned in this text is illustrated and briefly 

 described in the Chinese Chronicle of the Island (P'u-t'o shan chi, 

 edition of 1739, Ch. 1, p. 9). The jade carving of the image must have 

 existed before the year 1068. If I am not mistaken, the style of drawing 

 here displayed is that of the Buddhist painters of the T'ang period, and 

 the artistic inspiration underlying the composition seems rather to 

 testify in favor of than to militate against such a supposition. Creative 

 pOwer in the production of Buddhist subjects seems to have prevailed 

 much stronger under the T'ang than under the Sung. Also the Sung 

 tradition that this image represents Samantabhadra need not be 

 questioned. We have thus, to recapitulate, three well authenticated 

 types of this Bodhisatva coming down from the T'ang epoch, — the 

 purely religious form of the cult represented by the painting of Wu 

 Tao-tse depicting him as the Bodhisatva, the genial human monk by 

 Yen Li-pen, and the happy meditating recluse by an unknown artist; 

 the two latter indubitably personal inventions of individual masters. 



I may be allowed to add in Fig. 204 a fourth variety which is repro- 

 duced from a Japanese wood-engraving made after a painting of Sesshu 

 (1420-1506). This Samantabhadra forms a triad with Cakyamuni 

 and Mafijucri to whom we alluded above in the notes on the Ju-i. 

 Though revealing many points of resemblance with the picture of Wu 



1 The famous island in the Chusan Archipelago, east of Ningpo, devoted to the cult 

 of Avalokitecvara (Kuan-yin); described by G. Smith (Narrative of an Exploratory 

 Visit to Each of the Consular Cities of China, pp. 264-278, New York, 1847), J. Ed- 

 kins (Chinese Buddhism, pp. 259 et seq.) and many others. I spent a week there in 

 July 1901. When passing through Calcutta in March 1908, I happened to meet 

 a Buddhist monk from that island who had traveled the whole distance, speak- 

 ing no other language than Chinese, for the purpose of collecting among his coun- 

 trymen funds for rebuilding the temples of P'u-t'o. 



